Well. there are tons of stories about the bad guys killing the
good guys. God forbid the good guys might defend themselves
and kill the bad guys.

"joe_323" wrote in message
...
I can't beleive no one else has posted this.

From www.latitude38.com:

Cruisers Apparently Kill Attacking Pirates off Yemen
March 16 - San Francisco Bay

The following report by Rodney J. Nowlin, USN Retired, of the cruising
vessel Mahdi, has been forwarded to us by many readers. It was written
on March 11:

"On March 8, 2005, two sailing yachts, Mahdi and Gandalf, were moving
southwest 30 miles off the coast of Yemen proceeding to the port of
Aden from Salalah, Oman. At about 0900, two outboard-powered boats,
both about 25 feet long with three aboard, passed off our stern moving
south at about 25 knots. An hour or two later they returned, one
coming quite close and looking us over carefully. The second boat
passed our bows, but quite a ways away. These boats were obviously not
engaged in a normal activity such as fishing, etc. At that time we
were south of Al Mukalla, Yemen. The area around Al Mukalla is well
documented as being a piracy problem area, so we started watching
carefully for anything out of the ordinary.

"At about 1600, we observed two different boats approaching us head-on
from the southwest. These boats were 25-30 feet long, had higher
freeboard than the others, and were diesel powered. They were coming
directly at us very quickly, and there were four men in each boat. The
boats separated at about 200 yards, one boat ahead of the other,
coming down Mahdi's port side and firing into the
cockpit. The other boat fired an automatic weapon at both Gandalf and
Mahdi, but mostly at Gandalf, from ahead. These guys were shooting
directly at the cockpits, and obviously intended to kill us.

"The first boat then swung around behind Mahdi's stern to come up and
board us. At that point I, Rod Nowlin, aboard Mahdi and armed with a
12-gauge shotgun loaded with 00 buckshot, started shooting into their
boat. I forced them to keep their heads down so that they could not
shoot at us. I'm not sure that I hit anyone at that point, although I
could see the driver of the boat crouched down behind a steering
console. After firing three shots at them, their engine started to
smoke, so I swung around to shoot at the boat ahead.

"At that point, I saw Jay Barry on Gandalf ram the boat amidships,
almost cutting it in two, and turning it almost completely over. I
turned back around to shoot again at the boat behind Mahdi, and that
is when they turned away from Mahdi and were heading toward the stern
of Gandalf. Gandalf was beside us, about 100 feet away. The bow of the
pirate's boat came right up against Gandalf's stern, and two men stood
up on the bow to board Gandalf. That was a serious and probably
fateful error on their part, as I shot both of them. The boat then
veered away, and I shot the driver - although I'm not sure of the
outcome because they were further away and my shot hadn't knocked him
over like the other two.

"Mahdi and Gandalf then kept going at full speed to put as much
distance between the pirates and us as possible. As soon as we were
out of rifle range, we looked back and saw that both boats were
drifting and appeared to be disabled.

"If Jay on Gandalf had not had the presence of mind to veer over into
the one boat and ram it, the outcome of this attack would have been
totally different, for all the pirates needed to do was stand off a
ways and shoot us to pieces with their automatic weapons. We were
extremely lucky.

"We broadcast Mayday calls on all VHF and HF radio frequencies,
including two HF emergency frequencies supplied by the U.S. Coast
Guard a few days before. The Coalition Forces in the area were
supposed to be monitoring these frequencies. There was no response
except from a commercial ship in the area, which approached and
observed the disabled pirates for a bit. They then motored alongside
us for two to four hours until dark to make sure we would be all
right.

"The pirates were well organized and well armed. There were at least
four boats involved. They had set up a picket line out from the Yemen
coast, probably for at least 50-75 miles, so if you transited the area
during the day they wouldn't miss you. The two boats that attacked us
appeared to have come from the south.
There has been speculation in the past that this ongoing piracy
problem off the Yemen coast was being carried out by Somali pirates.
Given the number, type of boats involved, and the direction the
spotter boats came from, this does not appear to be correct in this
case. The pirate problem has been getting worse and pirate attacks
have been getting deadly. One could only expect that the Yemen
government would take more direct action. At the very least, allow
yachts to group in Salalah, Oman, and at some point on the northwest
Yemen coast to request an escort.

"We - Rod, Becky, and Jamee - just wanted to let you know that we are
all fine, although a little traumatized. It's just a reminder that the
cruising life is a thrill a minute! We have some damage to the boat
from bullets, but nothing that can't be repaired."

We regret we don't have more information - full names of all the
crews, the boat types, and boat hailing ports - on Madhi and Gandalf.

This area has always been active with pirates, but the level and
sophistication of the activity seems to have picked up dramatically.
We received another email which reported that cruising boats were
transiting the area in convoys of six or more boats for safety, but
even that wasn't enough. Heavily armed pirates have apparently been
weeding out one boat at a time and taking their money and electronics.
Be aware, however, our information is very, very sketchy, so we have
no idea about the true extent of it. We'll try to find out more